Vintage DD turntables. Are we living dangerously?

Mat wise, did anyone try the old Oracle groove isolator?
It's a bit smaller than the TT platter but thick enough to be higher than the edge. I have tried carbon fibre (Boston) and Acrylic hard mat and found them hard and bright sounding. The Groove Isolator seems to have a very good tonal balance to my ears without losing details/muffling the sound.
Your mileage may vary.

Dear Doron, BA mats, brittle sounding or not, are not made of carbon fiber; they are made of graphite. (But I submit this with some trepidation, knowing now that you are an expert on materials science.) On two very different turntables (Lenco and SP10Mk3), I find them to be relatively neutral. On my Kenwood L07D, I find no reason to deviate from the OEM stainless steel "platter sheet", but if you asked me how I feel about metal mats in general, I would say that the BA graphite mat2 beat out the SAEC SS300 metal mat on my Mk3. Go figure.

Fleib

.......or have their ear bitten off. Bon appetit.

I hope you didn't think it was I with the hunger pangs...❓👀
I was trying to convey the thought that no-one has yet proposed a scientifically provable theory as to what, how or why the turntable mat plays such an important role in the 'sound' that the stylus extracts from the record groove❓
In exactly the same way that no-one has proven HOW the material of the headshell does (for arms with removable ones)....😏
It is of course tempting to formulate theories in our minds to try to explain these phenomena....but the only conclusive evidence we have for them...is the listening experience (as far as I am aware)❓

Nowhere is this more visible than in the topic at hand.....leather/suede turntable mats.
Five years ago when I happened to acquire an original Victor Pigskin mat with my TT-101....I don't believe that there were after-market leather mats available from many sources at all...❓Certainly 30 years ago I had never even heard of them...
These days on EBay.....if you type in "Leather turntable mats".....you can find dozens of independent suppliers who all have their own takes on composition, thicknesses and finishes....as Banquo has discovered..😜
So a market has arisen (and it must be a considerable one)...driven by an obvious demand...to enable financial profit for multiple suppliers...
And now Jico has entered it 😏
This 'market' could only have grown due to first-hand listening experiences as I have not noticed any great press coverage of this 'discovery' in the printed or on-line journals..❓👀

Sorry Lew,
My bad, Carbon Graphite it is. In any case, didn't work for me.
Re material's expert, I'm far from being an expert on anything.
I always say: I learn everyday, I'm going to die stupid in the end, but I'll die trying...:-)
Mat sound, like cables (and maybe this whole hobby) is subjective.
A dark sounding system (define dark) can benefit from a hard mat and a bright system would benefit from a duller sounding mat.
Without references points any impression is subjective.
its just trial and error for any one of us.
Generally, I see audio as a combination of engineering, physics and cooking, all in one hobby...unlike engineering and physics, cooking and taste is a highly subjective matter. Otherwise we would all have the same system.
Not even getting into the fact that we all have very different rooms (and rooms account for very high percentage of the sound).
My personal experience in the context of my system/taste is that softer mats like cork, pig skin, delrin have better sonic results.

Halcro,
No one has yet to provide a provable theory how or why a mat works?

This stuff might seem like rocket science to you or I, but it's not. The record/platter interface is understood, but platters are made differently and people bring their preferences to the evaluation table.

If you read the literature describing the Acromat, you know that its mechanical impedance is trying to match that of a record so vibrations are drained unimpeded. The bubbles are to prevent the vibrations from reentering the record.
Apparently this works, at least to some extent. Some people are getting good results. This approach is taken directly from Pierre Lurne (physicist). He devised a platter that was (I believe) 10mm of lead sandwiched between methacrylate slabs. Lead is extremely affective at slowing vibrations and the methacrylate was formulated to match the record. The formulation of acrylic and methacrylate can be varied to different hardness.

Rubber or sorbothane is good at damping, but generally isn't a rigid platform - it gives.
A leather top mat can soften the blow so to speak, between the record and a hard platter - metal or glass. It too will give, but if it's thin and LP is hard clamped, it might not compromise detail? You can say the same about sorbothane, but IMO that only goes so far.
With that said, I just ordered a thin leather/suede mat. I'm still going to make a lead mat. I have to figure out how to do it and what to use on the outside. I always liked the Goldmund mat, but they're pretty much gone.

The notion that JVC had this figured out 35 years ago, is akin to burying your head in the sand. Look at all the statement tables back then, NONE had a great mat or platter, at least the interface.
Regards,